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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24422653">A little different, A little new</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/HaroThar/pseuds/HaroThar'>HaroThar</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Camping, F/F, Mutual Pining, Scorpia gets good things</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 06:55:15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,209</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24422653</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/HaroThar/pseuds/HaroThar</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Adora and Scorpia reminisce together, which leads to Adora trying out a new adventure.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Adora/Scorpia (She-Ra)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>45</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/philowriting/gifts">philowriting</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Happy Birthday Rae!!!!! I love you *blows u a kiss*</p><p>This was written after the events of s4 but it's getting posted today, so that's why none of s5 has been taken into account</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Adora was a simple lesbian, who savored simple joys in this life. Scorpia’s arms. Scorpia’s hair. Buff women with muscles. Buff women with big muscles and titties. Scorpia’s big muscles and titties. Scorpia’s calves. Her shoulders. Her neck. </p>
<p>Yes, Adora could be pleased quite easily. And that was not even to mention the simple joys of eating a fresh piece of fruit, of laying down on the soft mattress Bow and Glimmer had dug out of someone’s garbage special for Adora, of laying on the beach and letting the cloudy waves brush over her bare ankles. </p>
<p>“Oh, Adora! Hey, didn’t see you there!” Scorpia greeted, turning and catching Adora staring. Scorpia never seemed bothered that Adora stared at her a lot. Scorpia might know why, and find it flattering, or at the very least amusing enough not to get offended. </p>
<p>“Hi Scorpia,” Adora returned, crossing the Bright Moon pavilion and all its pretty flowers to where Scorpia was sitting in the grass, Emily whirling in place with happy beeps in front of her. </p>
<p>“What’s up?” Scorpia asked as Adora took a seat on the grass next to her, the clear breeze rustling her floof.</p>
<p>“Just thinking,” Adora said, leaning back on her palms, letting the feeling of Bright Moon’s crisp spring air wash over her.</p>
<p>“Me too!” Scorpia said brightly, and Adora opened her eyes with a smile.</p>
<p>“What were you thinking about?”</p>
<p>“Ah, nothing, just,” Scorpia scratched at the side of her face with her claw. She had to have such precise control, to wield such dangerous, powerful pincers and yet still be able to do fine motor actions like scratching or drawing or holding a hand. “It’s the first time I’ve ever missed spring planting in my life,” Scorpia finished, and Adora’s face fell.</p>
<p>“Yeah. I missed it last year, too,” Adora said. “It’s my anniversary of leaving the Horde…” she mentioned, realizing the fact only now that she’d been reminded. She got promoted on the equinox, when new Force Captains were traditionally assigned, needing the largest number of hands available to corral cadets through spring planting.</p>
<p>“Hey, that’s incredible,” Scorpia said, her smile not as bright but hardly forced. “Congrats on the occasion.”</p>
<p>“You too,” Adora said, nudging her with her elbow. “Leaving’s hard; I’m proud of you for doing it.”</p>
<p>Scorpia’s face went all wobbly-soft and Adora’s heart did a triple somersault. How could one person be so <i>pretty?</i></p>
<p>“Thanks,” Scorpia said, turning her gaze back to Emily, who was scanning a bright magenta blossom.</p>
<p>“...” Adora stared as well, enjoying Scorpia’s company for a moment. “What was your favorite part of spring planting?” Adora asked, wanting, <i>needing</i> to talk to somebody like her. Someone who understood that while she never, never for one moment, regretted leaving the Horde, that didn’t mean she couldn’t miss it.</p>
<p>“Gosh, pff, all of it?” Scorpia said, her tail doing the twitch-twitch-jerk thing it did when she was agitated, scared, or excited. “I mean, packing your gear, making sure you didn’t forget anything--or the other cadets didn’t swipe anything while you weren’t looking, back when I was still a cadet--” Adora chuckled, remembering the performative thievery that surrounded prepping for the excursion. Catra had her year’s highest score for stolen supplies every year they did it, with Rogelio in second by a long stretch of distance (Adora had, humiliatingly enough, rarely done better than Kyle (it was because she was a shit liar and terrible at sneaking)). “--and then, you know, like, going out west?”</p>
<p>“The journey was so fun,” Adora agreed, fondly remembering how she and her team would all pack into a skiff with Aiden’s team, or sometimes Alex’s, and wrestle for the exterior spots on the skiff so they could catch the breeze in their hair while a senior cadet or (only once, in Adora’s case) officer would pilot. “Catra always wanted to be the one to actually <i>drive</i> the skiff, she hated that junior cadets weren’t even allowed to learn.”</p>
<p>Scorpia laughed. “That sounds like our wildcat! I had to fend off a couple junior cadets who tried to take the steering column right out of my claws, when I’d first been promoted to Force Captain,” she said with another chuckle.</p>
<p>“I’m surprised anyone had the guts,” Adora remarked. </p>
<p>“I was too! Oh, and man, setting up camp?”</p>
<p>Adora nodded. “My team was really good at that race,” she commented. “They would tease me for being bossy but we were always the first ones set up who met standards.”</p>
<p>Scorpia hummed, likely reminiscing for a moment. Spring planting featured a test of how well cadets could apply what they had learned in a real scope. Horde encampments were uniform, standard, and efficiently drawn up or struck down, with cadets going off years of practice before they ever actually put their boots on the ground. Adora had the layout memorized still, carved into her memory.</p>
<p>“I think my favorite part was the planting itself,” Adora remarked. “Nothing but me, some cacti, the crags, and the dirt.”</p>
<p>“I was never too good at that part,” Scorpia said. “Too much hiking and handling of small, breakable sprouts.”</p>
<p>Adora laughed a little. “So you can’t run and you can’t hike. Good to know.” </p>
<p>“I can run!” Scorpia protested, “I’m just not <i>fast</i> like everyone else is.” </p>
<p>“Riiiiiight,” Adora said, leaning her shoulder against Scorpia’s chiseled bicep (bicep, because Adora wasn’t tall enough to reach her shoulder). The bulbous cacti the Fright Zone used as the primary source of plant material (and the main ingredient in the green ration bars, which were the worst ration bars by far) grew specifically in the western crags. They had a nasty tendency of sprouting too close to their mother plants, though, and wouldn’t grow to full size in a timely fashion unless the buds were uprooted and moved to their own personal section of the highlands. So, every spring, the entire Horde would migrate west for the week and swarm over the western crags armed with trowels, brimmed hats, water bottles, thick gloves, and kneeling pads</p>
<p>It was simultaneously the most communal event the Horde had, and blissfully isolated. Each person--save Shadow Weaver and Lord Hordak himself--was present, and each person was working, but the work itself was entirely personal. The only people who interacted with anyone else--beyond a “hey shove over a little” or “did you get the northern face?”--were the Force Captains. FC’s were charged with watching over the really young cadets, the ones who ran from team to team collecting empty water bottles and filling them from the communal cistern, who would gather around the FC’s and listen with the intensity of focus that came with young children as they explained how the cacti worked, on why they were important, on the proper method of uprooting and replanting, the ones who were quizzed on which area of the camp housed what purpose, and were rewarded for swift answers with a head of pepper sedum to chew on.</p>
<p>Adora had been an insufferable little know-it-all as a baby cadet, which wasn’t the official name but was what they all called those little kids anyway. She’d get a whole collection of pepper sedum, too many for her baby hands to hold all at once, the Force Captains charged with teaching her trying to contrive ways to keep her from getting too many and giving herself an upset stomach.</p>
<p>Adora had always shared, though, Catra first, then the rest of her team. She liked the act of getting the questions right as much as she liked the prizes. Maybe more, if she was being honest.</p>
<p>“I bet you were amazing with the baby cadets,” Adora mentioned, ebbing in and out of her thoughts, treading water between reminiscing and speaking with the woman next to her.</p>
<p>“I was,” Scorpia said proudly, Adora feeling her straighten where she sat. “They loved me; I was their <i>favorite.”</i></p>
<p>Adora smiled, Bright Moon’s breeze blowing a lock of hair into her lips, a couple strands getting stuck so she had to reach up and pull them away from her face. </p>
<p>“I betcha they would’ve loved you too,” Scorpia remarked, and Adora closed her eyes. </p>
<p>She didn’t regret leaving.</p>
<p>But she <i>had</i> really, really looked forward to watching after the baby cadets during spring planting. Showing them the best way to hike over the crags and cliffs. Sending them off to apply their knowledge by collecting water bottles and getting them back out to the other cadets. Adora had fantasized about how she’d make them laugh while still teaching them about encampment layouts, sun exposure consequences, proper hydration techniques, how she’d be fun and cool and interesting while still getting the information on her charts and models into their baby skulls. </p>
<p>Adora knew members of the Horde had perfectly nutritional sustenance in the ration bars, and in a general sense she would never have abused her authority as a Force Captain, but she also knew that she would’ve snuck herself a pepper sedum, two, because everyone who wasn’t a baby cadet snuck a pepper sedum or two as they crawled across the landscape. It grew everywhere, like grass grew here in Bright Moon, and junior cadets learned an important lesson in noticing small, smaaaaaall differences in their environment because pepper sedum and bitter sedum were almost indistinguishable, save for the “leaf” structure in the heads. It had always been obvious when a junior cadet had plucked a bitter sedum from the ground. Even Rogelio had never been able to keep his face from scrunching up at the taste. Baby cadets were even more obvious, and one bad experience quickly encouraged them to only eat sedum they’d earned from their FC’s.</p>
<p>“I know I would’ve loved them,” Adora murmured, belated, delayed, but Scorpia was as lost in meandering thought as she was, so it didn’t matter.</p>
<p>“The air,” Scorpia said, a drawn out moment later. “I think that that was probably my favorite part, the atmosphere out west. The Fright Zone might have been home but it was always so humid.”</p>
<p>Adora hummed in agreement. The constant forging of metal armor, weapons, mechanical parts, it left steam thick in the air, and the mining operations for the iridescent metal poured greenish fog from the earthen vents. The Fright Zone’s air was always thick, with tempered metallic smells, with fog, with water vapor from the smelters.</p>
<p>“The Crimson Waste was--” Adora and Scorpia cut themselves off, glancing at each other in surprise before sharing a twin laugh.</p>
<p>“Go ahead,” Adora said, nudging where she leaned against Scorpia, and Scorpia smiled. </p>
<p>“The Crimson Waste was a lot like the western crags. My exoskeleton felt so good out there, I think it’s a climate thing.”</p>
<p>“It’s definitely a climate thing,” Adora agreed. </p>
<p>“I could just breathe easier out there, you know?” Adora wasn’t sure if Scorpia was talking about the Crimson Waste, or was back on the western crags, but decided it didn’t matter.</p>
<p>“Yeah, I do. The air was clearer and I didn’t have as much hanging over my head all the time.”</p>
<p>“Just me, a bunch of kids, cacti, and the dirt.” Scorpia was obviously trying to quote Adora, and she giggled, knocking her head against her shoulder and narrowly missing the lowest shoulder spike. </p>
<p>“Nothing to do except hike and plant and plant and hike.”</p>
<p>“And wrestle,” Scorpia said, a quirk of her lips sending a small thrill through Adora.</p>
<p>“And wrestle,” Adora agreed. When the sun was down and the desert was cold, senior cadets would sneak out to wrestle, and junior cadets would sneak out to watch. It was a ‘secret’ that the Force Captains ‘didn’t know about,’ and as long as no one actually got <i>hurt</i> they got to go as hog wild as they wanted. </p>
<p>“Force Captains had their own wrestling matches,” Scorpia mentioned, and Adora perked up.</p>
<p>“Yeah?”</p>
<p>“Yeah, it was brutal. Senior cadets went hard but FC’s went soooo much harder.” Scorpia grinned wide, looking like she was staring down the barrel of a laser canon and Adora was burnt toast to-be. “You remember that year when Octavia refused to use her tentacles for two days?”</p>
<p>Adora searched her memories, eyes darting, but then remembered. It was, what, four years ago now? “Yeah?”</p>
<p>“I knocked her out with a sting between the tentacles. Left a welt the size of her fist but she couldn’t say <i>anything</i> about it.”</p>
<p>Adora laughed. “I dunno if you ever worked with Alex’s team? You know that kid with green hair over their eyes?”</p>
<p>“I’ve seen ‘em around.”</p>
<p>“So, when we were just old enough to pass off as senior cadets as long as nobody asked to many questions, Alex and my teams went up in the matches and I sparred Randy, the green kid, and I won the fight even <i>after</i> they threw sand in my face.”</p>
<p>“Nice!” Scorpia crowed, offering a high five. A high claw? Didn’t matter.</p>
<p>“Man…” Scorpia said, head rolling back and breeze tossing her hair. “It’s really nice here, don’t get me wrong, but I’m just… kinda bummed.”</p>
<p>“I get it,” Adora said, “Of absolutely everyone here, trust me, I get it.”</p>
<p>Scorpia leaned, resting her head on top of Adora’s, and Adora’s heart ached, soft and bittersweet. She and Scorpia sat in silence, from there out, sharing the understanding, the deep <i>relief</i> of being understood. Adora watched a strong gust of wind roll through the Whispering Woods, the trees waving and bending before giving way to grass that swayed in the wind. When the gust reached them, Adora was struck.</p>
<p>Struck with an idea, that was.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They couldn’t leave Bright Moon, couldn’t even go particularly far from home, what with Adora being still-technically-She-ra, savior of the planet, and Scorpia being too recent of an addition for full-trust to be extended. But with a bit of research and Bow’s borrowed map, Adora was ready to put her plan into action.</p><p>“If you’re not gonna tell me where we’re going, you could at least let me see what you have packed,” Scorpia pouted, eyeing the large backpack Adora carried.</p><p>“Nope,” Adora said, popping the p.</p><p>“I could carry it?” Scorpia offered, “I think you’ve noticed, I <i>am</i> stronger than you, and it looks pretty heavy.”</p><p>“No, you’re just gonna look!” Adora protested, blushing at the implication that Scorpia knew just how much Adora stared at her arms, “Besides, I don’t need you any slower than you already are.”</p><p>“Hey! I’m not slow, you’re just fast!”</p><p>“Riiiiiight, right,” Adora said, and laughed when Scorpia hip checked her, the weight of the backpack further unbalancing her. She bodychecked Scorpia right back, and she barely even <i>moved.</i> Stupid sexy brick wall of a lesbian. Stupid sexy brick wall of a lesbian who was <i>laughing at her.</i></p><p>“Jerk,” she said, sticking her tongue out, and Scorpia tongue-stuck right back.</p><p>“You’re the one keeping me in the dark!”</p><p> “It’s called a <i>surprise</i> and you’ll like it,” Adora insisted, glancing down as Scorpia tugged her skirt off a stray bush. She was wearing the floral leggings Perfuma had gifted her, plus the high necked crop top that Did Things to Adora’s bloodflow. Adora turned her attention back to the deer trail that could barely qualify as a “path,” and checked the electronic map that Bow had given her, a miniature of his own tracker pad. “Besides, we’re close.”</p><p>Scorpia leaned in, staring over Adora’s shoulder, and she jerked the map away, hiding it under her armpit. Another round of tongues were stuck out.</p><p>The caves came into view not too long after. The Whispering Woods didn’t have cliffs, didn’t even really have “hills” in any meaningful capacity, but this hill specifically had a couple caves, two of which were actually a cave system, and Adora was practically bouncing with each step, her excitement contained behind her bitten lower lip. Scorpia gasped when she realized what was happening.</p><p>“Adora!” Scorpia said, tearing up, claws up in front of her wobbling chin, and Adora sent her a nervous-excited smile. A moment later she was swallowed up in a hug, crushing enough to leave her wheezing but she didn’t want it to stop. “All because I said I was missing spring planting?!”</p><p>“It’s not gonna be exactly like it,” Adora warned. She couldn’t control the climate and there was nothing the two of them could dig up or plant, but. “But there are cool things for us to explore and we can spar and I brought grilled artichokes that I threw a <i>ton</i> of pepper on, like, the kitchen staff was giving me weird looks, so I dunno how they’re actually gonna taste--but I wanted to, yknow, do something. For both of us, actually,” Adora added a little quieter. “Bow calls it ‘camping in the backyard’ since neither of us can really <i>leave</i> Bright Moon.” Adora perked up, smiling brightly, “I packed a tent!”</p><p>Scorpia’s tail was twitch-twitch-jerking rapidly, her eyes surveying the slope. Then she whirled on Adora and her grin went sharp, making Adora’s heart flutter and flop. “So what do we wanna do first?”</p><p>Adora held out the backpack, and between the two of them, they got the tent (one of Bright Moon’s, overly plush and spacious) set up with Horde-like efficiency. Adora felt stupid for being besotted over how Scorpia <i>set up a tent</i> but!! Just!!! Look, okay, Adora loved the princesses, she loved Bow and she loved Sea Hawk, but none of them could <i>actually accomplish reasonable goals in a timely fashion!!!!!</i> There was always <i>complaining</i> and <i>questioning</i> and hemming and hawing and doing it wrong <i>then</i> doing it right. But Scorpia and Adora simply grabbed the tent, set it up, and bam! Done! It was a stupidly beautiful experience.</p><p>Adora had an entirely uncalled for shiver when she thought about <strike>playing</strike> strategizing using maps, figurines, and dice with Scorpia. Scorpia might actually stick to the plan. The thought was sorely tempting.</p><p>“Artichoke?” Adora offered, extending the sealed box in Scorpia’s direction. </p><p>“Oo, yes,” Scorpia said, carefully pincing a little green head in her claw. Adora grabbed one as well, nervous.</p><p>“I haven’t tasted these yet so it’s okay if it’s bad and you don’t want to eat any more,” Adora said, but Scorpia had already popped it into her mouth. She made a curious, but not displeased noise and reached out to grab a second from the box. Adora ate her own, and oh, wow, okay, that was why the kitchen staff had looked at her like she was nuts with the pepper. She coughed a little, knocking a fist to her chest, then sneezed.</p><p>“It’s strong,” Scorpia said, biting into the second one. “But good!” she said around the food, smiling brightly.</p><p>“Yeah!” Adora said, picking up a second one of her own. All of Bright Moon’s food tasted strongly, to her, so this was just extra-strong, but not in a way where she wanted to stop eating. “It’s just different.”</p><p>Everything was different, now, than it was. But not bad.</p><p>They ate half the box, drank plenty of water, and then Scorpia was urging Adora out of the tent, the two of them excited to poke around in the caves. They wouldn’t find anything, Adora was sure, but the simple act of going in and looking around was just! Fun! And she was right! There was nothing in the caves except moss and lichen and Adora got to use Bow’s pad to read off neat scientific fun facts about the things they found there, Scorpia sometimes staring thoughtfully at the cave moss in question, sometimes reading over Adora’s shoulder along with her. By the time they finished going through all the caves, the sun was down past the treeline, casting long shadows, the murmurs of the Whispering Woods more pronounced. </p><p>“So,” Scorpia said, staring out at the forest past their tent before turning with a bright grin to Adora, “what was that you said, once, about taking me in a fight?”</p><p>Adora grinned. “Uh, that I could do it any day of the week, She-ra or no She-ra.”</p><p>Scorpia’s smile broadened, tail twitch-twitch-jerking, and Adora felt her pulse kick up, face a mirror of Scorpia’s own. Oh yes. Ohhhh yes they were doing this. “I brought knuckle wraps, give me a second.”</p><p>“Thin-skin,” Scorpia called, mocking and playful, and Adora actually <i>skipped</i> with her next step. She trained with Light Hope, sure, not recently thanks to the whole Heart of Etheria thing that resulted in the computer’s untimely death, but she <i>had</i> been able to train since joining the Rebellion. Even so, nothing, absolutely nothing, not the simulators in the Horde, not the generated spiders and bots, and certainly not an actual real battle, could compare to the heady rush that a good old fashioned sparring match gave Adora. The safety, in knowing nobody was actually going to get hurt, combined with the absolute thrill that came with trying to physically subjugate an opponent was like none other.</p><p>And now Adora was going to spar with Scorpia, Force Captain, towering goddess of lesbianism, with spikes and pincers and a long red tail. Adora wrapped her knuckles and pulled the staff out of her bag, manually telescoping the sections instead of just pressing a button, like a Horde staff. She was a swordswoman, now, but she’d grown up with a rod beneath her palms and her callouses remembered the weight and feel.</p><p>She’d had to search through half of Bright Moon to find this, plain, nondescript, no added fleurs at the end for magic or Bright Moon’s ever-present decoration. It was old, plain, unfavored, but that was exactly why Adora wanted it. She stepped out of the tent with a bright grin, settling into an old skin she no longer wore, but sometimes missed. Scorpia’s skirt was folded to the side, leaving her in her crop top and leggings, and the feeling of faux-danger spiked.</p><p>“Alright little miss Force Captain,” Scorpia called, beckoning, mocking, a tone she’d taken when Adora and Scorpia had faced each other on the field and Scorpia felt witty and confident (and oh, that Adora could see her feeling this way now, with nothing and no one to focus on but her own little self). “Show me if you can really cut it with the big kids.”</p><p>Adora hedged, at first, plotting out the environment. Half the fun of spring planting wrestling was the fact that the terrain was uneven, unpredictable, lacking in any math or sense. First time fighters found the lack of a smooth, uniform training deck near half as tricky as the opponent they faced, and the Whispering Woods offered added threats like roots and branches.</p><p>Of course, Adora was no first time fighter. But then, neither was Scorpia.</p><p>Scorpia’s stinger made up for whatever speed her legs lacked, Adora barely able to lift her staff in time to catch it, and her non-princess strength barely enough to deflect its force. Scorpia, after all, was strong. Adora grinned.</p><p>She struck next, staff aimed at Scorpia’s arms, hard to miss, but Adora was feeling her out, getting a sense. Scorpia blocked the next two, three, four blows, then caught Adora about the ankle and <i>threw her.</i> Adora landed half in a bush, half on the hard forest ground. She used her staff to propel herself back onto her feet, breath coming quick, smile wide, and perhaps a little bit flushed.</p><p>“Is that all you’ve got?” Scorpia called, tail twitching and her smile more than enough to put Adora in the dirt.</p><p>“Just warming up.”</p><p>Adora rushed her, closing the distance in a moment, and swung low, right at Scorpia’s pretty, pretty knee caps. Scorpia got her claw down in time, but it was the simple matter of flicking her wrist to twirl the staff into bonking Scorpia on the head.</p><p>“Hey!”</p><p>Adora struck again, giggling, delighted, and so began the back and forth in earnest. Scorpia had impenetrable defenses, in that even if Adora did manage to land a blow, it seemed to roll off her unnoticed. But she was mostly stationary, letting Adora duck out, reassess, and duck back in as she pleased. The battle was one of, if not <i>the,</i> longest fights Adora had been in--apart from an actual literal battle field.</p><p>And if Adora wasn’t besotted <i>before…</i></p><p>Finally, a rapid sequence of claw-claw-tail-leg let Adora knock Scorpia off her feet, landing with a thud and an instinctive tail-strike Adora only barely dodged. </p><p>“Is that all you’ve got?” Adora asked simperingly, her breathing <i>ragged</i> and her voice betrayed by a small tremor.</p><p>Scorpia bared her teeth in a devilish grin and Adora’s stomach went weightless and fluttery. “Guess.”</p><p>Scorpia charged her, massive and dauntless as a raging bull, and no amount of planted stance or physical strength could save Adora. Her only hope would have been to dive out of the way, and she hadn’t, so now she was staring up at the giant, beautiful woman who had her pinned to the forest floor.</p><p>“I win,” Scorpia announced simply, her tone and grin betraying her pride.</p><p><i>Oh but I <b>won</b></i> Adora thought from her glorious vantage point.</p><p>It was with great sorrow that Adora was forced to watch Scorpia go, though Scorpia was even <i>taller</i> from this angle. “Are you alright?” Scorpia asked, extending her claw.</p><p>Adora took it and was helped to her feet, feeling <i>good,</i> adrenaline making light of any injuries she might have had. “Fantastic, you?”</p><p>“I could go for some water,” Scorpia said with a stretch, Adora’s eyes gravitating to the flexing muscles of her abdomen. Her own mouth went suddenly dry.</p><p>“Me too.” Adora grinned and took a silly voice, bowing a little, “Shall I carry the parched princess?”</p><p>Scorpia laughed, rolling her shoulders. “As fun as that would be, I think you might be underestimating how much I weigh.”</p><p>“See, now that just sounds like a challenge,” Adora said with an arched eyebrow. She was historically bad at resisting those.</p><p>“No, no,” Scorpia said with a self-conscious chuckle, “it’s really not, I’m just--oh!”</p><p>Adora grinned at the woman in her arms. “You were saying?”</p><p>Scorpia looked at Adora, down at the ground she was being carried across, back to Adora, and smiled with the most heart-stopping blush Adora had ever been blessed to witness. “Okay,” she said with a darling little curl of her tail, settling into Adora’s arms and folding her claws in close to her chest.</p><p>Adora kept a quick clip back to their tent, trying not to show signs of strain. Scorpia <i>did</i> weigh a lot, she was so phenomenally huge, and Adora’s arms couldn’t hold up indefinitely. But <i>what</i> was the point of being a jock lesbian if she couldn’t carry beautiful women in her arms? It was her moon! Given! Right!</p><p>Adora’s arms may have been relieved but it was with a heavy heart that she set Scorpia down in front of their tent. Scorpia’s flustered little giggle made it all more than worth it, though. “That’s never happened to me before.”</p><p>Adora beamed.</p><p>New goal and mission: get buffer and then just carry Scorpia around absolutely everywhere. Adora needed to train, it was the simple fact of the matter, she had things she needed to accomplish. She wanted to make Scorpia blush and smile and giggle like that all the time, every moment of every day, wow. Wow wow.</p><p>“Oh no, my skirt!” Scorpia said with a glance down at her leggings.</p><p>“I got it! Don’t worry, I got it!” Adora rushed off, feeling silly. But also feeling like she wanted to do a thing for a hot girl. Many things. All the things. Anything Scorpia wanted her to do.</p><p>“Here!” Adora exclaimed, passing the skirt over enthusiastically, and Scorpia thanking her made her heart go pitter patter.</p><p>“You know,” Scorpia said, fiddling with the skirt’s band so it was even with her leggings, “you’re really cute when you smile like that.”</p><p>Adora laughed awkwardly, too loud and standing soldier-straight, before leaning “casually” on a nearby tree and getting her ponytail caught on a low twig, which snapped off and tangled into her hair poof. She pulled it out, which also pulled the wisp of hair it was twisted up in out of the ponytail, hanging in her face, and Scorpia laughed. Bright and loud and not mean at all, just happy, and Adora felt stupid but also willing to be the butt of any joke to hear a laugh like that.</p><p>“Then again,” Scorpia continued, brushing her claw against the back of her neck, “you’re always cute.”</p><p>Adora stood stock-still, red to her ears and down her neck, staring, before blurting, “No, you!”</p><p>Scorpia held open the flap of the tent with a ‘thoughtful’ hum, then said, “Nah, pretty sure it’s you,” before slipping inside. Adora spluttered; wasn’t Scorpia supposed to be dorkier than this? Adora was wrecked by dweeby sweet Scorpia and sassy competitive Scorpia, she couldn’t handle adding flirty smooth Scorpia to the mix!</p><p>Adora was vindicated to see, upon entering the tent, that Scorpia was sitting on her bedroll with her face in her claws, bright red. Adora sat on her own bedroll and nudged Scorpia’s knee with her foot, grinning, and cherished the sight of Scorpia peeking out from between her claws.</p><p>“Wanna finish off the artichokes?”</p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p>They ate, and as they did, darkness settled over the tent swiftly, the Woods not as cold as a desert night but thrice as noisy. The whispering was present, yes, it was the Whispering Woods after all, but more than that, the forest was alive with night song. Crickets played their fiddle legs, moonbirds took flight in rustles of feathers, the occasional creature scurried through the brush, and somewhere in the distance a choir of frogs started to sing. </p><p>Adora was pressed close to Scorpia, even Bright Moon’s lavish tent filled by Scorpia’s impressive bulk, necessitating proximity. Adora was doing the opposite of complaining, happily taking the excuse to cuddle in. Scorpia nuzzled against Adora’s temple (and oh, her heart) and murmured, “I missed the noise, too.”</p><p>Adora instantly understood. Bright Moon was so <i>quiet.</i> In the Horde, there were always hissing pipes, footsteps of those on patrol, the low tones of cadets up past curfew talking across the bunks, whirring machinery, a pendulum’s tick, team members’ breathing, snoring, distant booms of heavy forge work, beeping robots, the gales that flew unbroken across the desert, sparking wires, <i>always,</i> always something. In Bright Moon, if Adora hadn’t had the steady hush of her room’s waterfall, she was sure she’d have gone mad.</p><p>Actually, maybe that’s what it was for. Adora still hadn’t figured out a non-shower purpose for it.</p><p>“Yeah.” Adora repositioned in closer, ear to Scorpia’s steady heartbeat. “I miss having other people. I know I would’ve had my own room if I’d been a Force Captain, but…”</p><p>“It was the biggest downside of the promotion,” Scorpia confirmed quietly, a claw laid over Adora’s waist. “I was lonely, even if I liked the space.”</p><p>“My room has plenty of space,” Adora mentioned sleepily, her eyes closed. “We could be roommates.”</p><p>“Yeah?” Scorpia asked, “I’d like that.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Oh my god, they'll be roommates</p><p>Please leave a comment with your thoughts! &lt;3</p></blockquote></div></div>
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